Tag Archives: unemployment

Super Secrets of the Successful Jobseeker by Simon Gray

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 Keeping ahead of the competition in 2013 From ‘Super Secrets of the Successful Jobseeker’  Author

Getting yourself to market

“Knowledge is power” might be a cliché these days, but the stark fact of the matter is that it’s never been more of a truism. When you know more about the environment you’re about to enter, then the better you can market yourself, and adapt.

I have interviewed a number of people recently who have been in secure jobs but have been thrown into the hustle and bustle of the jobs market because of redundancy. To be frank, some of their expectations have been unrealistic. They often think that the jobs market is exactly the same as when they last looked for a position –  but times have changed.

I often equate this to a prisoner who has been newly released from prison after serving a 10-stretch. Their surroundings are unfamiliar, and time, people and technology has moved on. It’s no wonder they’re confused.

In my experience, jobseekers react to this in two different ways: they bury their head in the sand and try and pretend nothing has changed; or they take a more enlightened approach and try to gain more understanding of the modern job market and how best to place themselves within in it.

It’s no secret that there are now more people applying for the same job than ever before. With this comes a downward pressure on salaries, and, as far as employers are concerned, it’s most definitely a “buyer’s market”.

Employers are under the impression that they don’t have to try too hard to find great candidates with the skills they need because there appears to be so many out there looking for jobs. They’re also in no rush to make snap decisions when it comes to appointments – nor will they hire unless completely necessary because of the cost risk that taking someone on incurs. In short: employers believe they sit in the seat of power.

Jobseekers, meanwhile, are going into the jobs market believing it’s going to be tough to land a role. They’re thinking to themselves: “I’m going to have to work really hard to find a job and I’m not guaranteed to find one – is there any point?” They also believe they should be grateful for any job that’s offered to them at whatever salary. But the main thing they believe is that they have absolutely no power in the jobs market at all.

I think this is misguided. Why? Because you simply can’t control what is out of your reach. The mindset of employers is beyond a jobseekers capability to alter, and so trying to do so will only waste time and lead to a dead end. The jobseeker would be better spending their time and effort trying to understand what their future potential employer is thinking, and how you can tailor your skills and experience to meet their requirements. In doing this, you’ll be instantly rebalancing the relationship.

The first thing any jobseeker should do is remember who their competition is. Make sure you differentiate yourself from other jobseekers; instantly falling in-line with what the competition is doing will put you at a distinct advantage. Arm yourself with the weapons you need to make you stand out from the crowd.

This can seem like a daunting task, but it needn’t be. Research is vital, and this can be done at a local level rather than trying to ascertain what’s happening nationally.

The local press is a good place to start. Find out what’s happening in the regional economy, and basic steps such as measuring the thickness of the local jobs paper is a good place to start if you want to take stock of hiring activity in the market.

Recent figures show that as many as 20 per cent of people online at any time are looking for a job. Use this time to take a look at jobs boards and search for skills that employers are looking for.

Talk to the professionals – set up meetings with local recruitment businesses. Ask their advice on what’s happening, skills sought after and salary levels.

Do your homework on your local business scene; who are the larger businesses and who are the up and coming SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises)?

By undertaking these simple steps, you the jobseeker, will have a more realistic handle on the jobs market and a better of the times on the times your are living in.

With a clear picture of how things are, you are far better informed and more empowered to plan your attack and find your next position.

Frost's Review of 2011

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2011 was an eventful political year, with the Arab Spring, phone Hacking and the death of more than one tyrant. On the flip side, it was also a year of wedding fever, Prince William finally made an honest women of Kate Middleton on April 29. Kate Moss and Jamie Hince, Lily Allen and Sam Cooper (she also announced her pregnancy), Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig, Prince Albert and Charlotte, Zara Phillips and Mark Tindall and Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell all tied the knot. Kim Kardashian got married too, but so briefly it is barely worth mentioning.

There was tragedy when Japan was struck by an record 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami. Followed by nuclear disaster at Fukushima, which is still being cleared up by brave workers, at serious risk to their own health.

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were acquitted of the murder of Meredith Kercher.

In August London burned as riots spread all over England, people died, lost their homes and taxpayers were left with a bill of over 100 million.

The Arab Spring started when 26-year-old vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi. set himself on fire in protest in a Tunisian marketplace on December 17th 2010. It lead to leaders all over the Arab world standing down including Hosni Mubarak (Egypt), Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and the death of Gaddafi in October.

Silvio Berlusconi also finally stepped down.

Osama Bin Laden was killed ten years after 9/11.

The press went mad over Pippa Middleton’s bottom. As did PR companies.

Super Injunctions were the buzzword of the year, but the name of the footballer came out after he was named by multiple people on Twitter. The film star who slept with the same prostitute as Wayne Rooney, however, got away with it. Our article on it was one of our most popular of the year, getting over 14,000 hits in a matter of hours

Borders book store closed down, as did the Space Shuttle Programme and Harry Potter ended after a decade.

The Iraqi war ended in December. A date set by the Bush administration.

Liam Fox lost his job.

The Phone Hacking scandal ran and ran.

Charlie Sheen lost it, but bounced back.

Aung San Suu Kyi was finally released from house arrest.

Frost’s Politician of the year is the people of Libya.

Anders Behring Breivik went on an murderous rampage in Norway on the Island of Utoya, leaving over 80 people dead and many more injured. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called the attack a “national tragedy” and the worst atrocity in Norway since World War II. Stoltenberg further vowed that the attack would not hurt Norwegian democracy, and said the proper answer to the violence was “more democracy, more openness, but not naivety”. In his speech at the memorial service on 24 July 2011, he said what a proper reaction would be: “No one has said it better than the AUF girl who was interviewed by CNN: ‘If one man can show so much hate, think how much love we could show, standing together.’

The end of Harry Potter.

Frost started a campaign to end Prescription charges in England, the only place in the so called ‘United’ Kingdom still paying them.

Jessie J had a breakthrough year and confessed to being bisexual.

David Walliams swam the Thames. He raised £1 million for Sports relief.

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher split.

As did J-Lo and Marc Anthony

Ryan Gosling had a brilliant year and was in the brilliant Drive. http://frostmagazine.com/2011/09/drive-film-review/

Sir David Attenborough dazzled again with Frozen Planet.

Frost Women of the year: Kate Middleton. After ten years and two break-ups, Catherine Elizabeth Middleton finally married her Prince Charming. Their wedding was watched by more people than 20 million people and the new Duchess of Cambridge has been wowing press and public alike with her style, charm and poise.

Man of the year: Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs died too young, aged 56, after a long battle with cancer. He changed the world with his vision and business acumen and when he died the outpouring of grief would rival that of Princess Diana. A true loss of a visionary man.

Most inspirational person: Eva Schloss. Eva survived the holocaust. She lost her father and her brother, her mother also survived and went on to marry Otto Frank and Eva became Anne Frank’s step-sister. She is truly the most inspirational women I have ever met. If you don’t believe me, read her books. The Promise: The Moving Story of a Family in the Holocaust
or Eva’s Story: A Survivor’s Tale by the Step-Sister of Anne Frank
[Full disclosure: I was in the West End Production of the play of Eva’s life; And Then They Came For Me.]

Kim Jong-il, Lucien Freud, Christopher Hitchens, Liz Taylor, Amy Winehouse and Vaclav Havel all died in 2011.

Adele and Katy Perry released the albums of the year.

Kristen Wiig co-wrote and starred in the hilarious Bridesmaids, which proved women could be funny.

Unemployment was high and economical troubles rumbled throughout the year. The US lost their triple AAA credit rating.

Finally, a great article.

http://frostmagazine.com/2011/10/top-10-common-faults-with-human-thought/

UK Youth Unemployment Hits a Million – A Fundamental Not A Short Term Problem

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UK youth unemployment rose above 1 million, its highest level since 1996 according to government figures. Employment Minister Chris Grayling blamed the Eurozone debt crisis for the rising number of jobless. Looking at the table below we can see that youth unemployment in this country has been rising for many years even before the recession.

May-July 2004 580,000 12.2
May-July 2005 600,000 12.6
May-July 2006 706,000 14.5
May-July 2007 711,000 14.6
May-July 2008 727,000 14.8
May-July 2009 944,000 19.8
May-July 2010 921,000 19.4
May-July 2011 973,000 20.8
July-September 2011 1,020,000 21.9

Source: Office of National Statistics

Typically and not unexpectedly the politicians have sought to push blame and responsibility elsewhere. The coalition blame everything on the Eurozone, Labour just want to capitalise on the situation and refuse to take any responsibility for a problem which they largely created. They still claim they did a brilliant job with the education system.

This isn’t a cyclical problem. It’s not about getting the economy to grow (as we keep hearing) it’s about the fundamental failure of our education system to prepare young people for work. The statistics above don’t lie. The problem is an obsession with grades and targets when we should be obsessed with skills. See my earlier article here. The previous Labour government became pushed as many students as it could into universities and it shunned apprenticeships. I myself have first-hand experience of the system I came out of school and university with top grades but totally unprepared for work.

Almost 28% of UK graduates who left university in 2007 were still not in full-time work three and a half years later, figures have suggested.

But if you think it’s bad here and can’t get any worse think again. Youth unemployment in Spain is at an astonishing 46.2% and youth unemployment across Europe has soared. This has been going on for much longer than the Eurozone crisis.

The exception to the rule is Germany. Please politicians look at the German system. The German system is defined by flexibility. It is designed to suit the individual Germany has five different types of secondary school. The German education system is geared to getting people into work. It has an incredibly successful apprenticeship system which allows young people to gain valuable experience and skills. (p.s. It has little or no tuition fees as well) The coalition government has made some progress in regard to apprenticeships but it is not nearly enough. Our entire curriculum, system and culture needs to be completely revised.

I am writing this article not to complain or blame the government but to make people aware of this serious fundamental problem. Make no mistake if we don’t fix this we are heading for a crisis. It will not be fixed overnight. We need a radical overhaul of our education system, if we continue down this path we are heading for disaster. The coalition government thinks it has done enough, it has not.

 

Entrepreneurs encourage young people to become economically active

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As the latest unemployment figures spike to a 17 year high, two young entrepreneurs prove that a disastrous job market is no obstacle

Unemployment in the UK has hit a 17 year high this month, putting pressure on the government to come up with a better economic strategy. The number of young people out of work is close to the million mark, with 991,000 16-24-year-olds out of work. The new figures, which take into account the last three months, are the worst since records began in the early 1990s.

Kevin Flood and Mike Harty, despite the doom and gloom of the employment market, have set up a unique online company straight out of university as an alternative to getting lost in the crowded jobs scrum. What’s more they are setting out to topple the online giants in the price comparison site arena.

Shopow.co.uk, their Social Shopping start-up, is a new type of shopping search engine that aggregates thousands of retailers and millions of products across all areas of consumer goods. Not only does this allow users to compare goods by criteria such as price, retailer, service and delivery, it also integrates various social functions so shoppers can find all the information they need to make the right decisions when buying online.

Kevin Flood, CEO of Shopow, said, “Our novel idea has meant that we were able to compete against some of the long established names from the outset. All budding entrepreneurs wishing to succeed shouldn’t underestimate the importance of a strong concept. We coupled this with our hard work ethic, detailed research and willingness to take the odd calculated risk in order to get our business off the ground and gathering momentum quickly.”

This momentum has resulted in the pair winning a Young Guns Business Award. Since the launch of Shopow in May 2010, the business anticipates revenues of over £3m in the first year of trading. The pair are confident they can achieve a ‘critical mass’ in the UK this year, and are looking to expand into the USA and mainland Europe imminently.

The message from Kevin and Mike is that business savvy individuals with a great idea can be masters of their own destiny and bypass the busy job market. Recent measures to tackle unemployment such as the Government Work Programme have generated optimism for some bright sparks, and opened other avenues so that they might create companies of their own.

Kevin Flood, Co-founder and CEO of Shopow, said, “We set up Shopow because of our love of business. There were so few opportunities in the job market that we opted to take a risk and move in a new direction, one which we would strongly encourage other young people to pursue.”

Community-Upon-Thames: Bringing People Together

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Community-upon-Thames is a not-for-profit social enterprise, set up and run by Ben Mallet and Maundy Todd. Frost was incredibly impressed by the difference they are making to people’s lives in Kingston and Richmond, so we went to their offices to find out more.

Frost: Tell me about Community-upon-Thames.

Ben: Community-upon-Thames was founded in the New Year as a social enterprise. We were originally looking to do something in local media as there was a big gap in the market. The local Informer newspaper went bust last week, which is an example of the volatility of the market. Current local media is dull and boring – we wanted to do something interesting.

We thought about doing something in print, though actually everything we wanted to do, we can do far better online. So we shifted the entire idea on to a website, where we have The Secret Newspaper – alternative local news, written by local people. We have lots of exciting stories on there and we also have a skill exchange, which is like a local currency, and volunteers too.

Maundy: Ben had this brilliant idea, which is the online community. Originally, he wanted to do the paper and, again, Zac (Goldsmith, the MP for Richmond and Kingston) got involved and said: “Don’t do it on paper,” and I thought, amongst other things we were talking about, of the Skill Exchange. We were looking at the community and how people could be part of the community in many different ways. I just thought [a website] was a fabulous thing to help older people, people who might be trapped at home, people who weren’t working – who could be made to feel useful. It also just gave this wonderful flexibility, for people who might be thinking of starting mumsnet, but don’t know how to go about it. You can do a skill exchange and see if it works. You can offer things and see if people come back.

The newspaper, I really wasn’t sure. We pay for a local paper but I think they are dead flat, really boring and all have the same stuff in. So, when Ben said online, I was really excited because an online newspaper is all about the community. Because we are website-based, we can do anything at all to help the community. If people want to write about something then they can write about it. Some have particular hobbies and if they want to get it to a wider group of people,they can send it to us and we can upload it – unless it is something, legally, we wouldn’t want. If they have pictures, even better.

Life is a bit tough. Cameron keeps going on about the breakdown of society – we do feel that what we’re doing is about bringing the community together, creating a society where people do care. This is an affluent area, but there is still those little pockets where there is no community. People feel very left out and very excluded. I include older people in this. We treat old people dreadfully in this country. Anything we can do to try and connect.

My other big passion is helping people with disabilities. My daughter is so excluded from society because she is disabled. Our whole life is about inclusion, about our daughter having the same opportunity of other children. Helping her raise her expectations, and other people’s expectations about what a disabled person’s role is in life. That includes education and work.

We are coming up to two million unemployed people now. A whole raft of young people who have been excluded from society because they did what they were supposed to. They went to university and then fell off the cliff.

I have two daughters who are graduates. So I was very interested in what Ben was doing, supporting local shops, local charities, and reporting local news. Helping people feel like they are part of society and get paid work. Unless you are in paid work, you don’t feel like you belong, you don’t feel part of it. That is how we got to the employment bit.

It’s what we call our virtuous circle. Helping out small shops means they want to help us. All of the local businesses want to help, because we want to help local people into work.

We got these offices because we had a generous landlord and why did he help us? Because he listened to us about trying to help people back into work. He said he had to fire lots of people when the recession hit, and they lose confidence very quickly. If you are in your 50s or 60s, you have virtually no chance of being employed.

We also try to help people with a learning disability. We decided that if you can help people with learning disabilities, you can help anyone because they are the most excluded group in the country. So when we were doing our qualities policy, we would not tolerate any type of discrimination from anybody about anything. We are completely inclusive.

Businesses don’t get all we are trying to do, but they feel this energy! (Laughs).

Ben, because he’s young and he’s good with technology, he made this media stuff happen, and because he is very committed and very genuine, he put ads on for interns and we got all of these wonderful graduates – some with firsts, completely despondent about trying to get jobs. They start working for us and we promise that we have a flat management structure and it’s flexible. And we say: “We will help you find a job. If you want any input you can come to any meeting or anything.”

Ben: To put this into context, the meeting that is happening next door is what we were talking about when we were talking about the virtuous circle with businesses. Richard runs a business in New Malden. We are trying to support him through that and Michael, who is one of our interns, came along and wanted to get involved. Richard wants to sort out his system and now they are having a conversation about paid work. That is the metaphor for how we work. We are supporting the businesses and supporting local people and the website is the glue that binds them together. It’s a two-way street.

Maundy: We were talking and Richard said: “It sounds so exciting, I really want to help you and I’m in IT. I would be happy to come and mentor.” So we said okay and he came into the office and we ended up talking about a job that he needs done and Michael popped up at the end and said: “I could do that.”

The thing is, Richard doesn’t want employees, and we don’t want employees because the employment legislation in this country is really restricting for medium-sized businesses. So we told Richard we were sure we could find self-employed people and they would just invoice you for the hours they work. That is a reason why the job market is so bad at the moment, people don’t want to take the risk of having an employee and all of the restrictions that come with it. But people want to work and they want to get paid. They want to be useful in society.

So far, it’s been great fun. It’s been a roller-coaster but we are stabilising. We did a coffee Q & A with Zac Goldsmith a couple of weeks ago with local businesses asking him questions. It was great. Over 25 businesses came, Zac said social enterprise is the way forward and even the guy next door said he really wanted to help.

It is rotten to be a young person. We are going to have a pop-up job cafe for young people. Everything is about contacts. Our entire business plan is about contacts. Nick Clegg is trying to stop that, but it’s not about ‘who your daddy knows’ contacts. It’s about making connections. We put people in contact in an informal way. We have not stumbled at all yet.

Ben: We are still trying to find leads for some people.

Maundy: The National Childbirth society is a member of our organisation. We have membership packages for sole traders, companies and not-for-profit. They lost their venue, so they have their home birth class in our office. We can write stuff about them on our website and we link. We sponsor the Twickenham Live Regatta. They had stand-up paddle boarding. So we had Ben and Charlie paddle boarding.

Ben: I fell in. It’s a lot harder than it looks. I finished the race dry, then I fell in.

Maundy: We have the picture on the website. They were on Facebook quite quickly. And we can do advertising and Youtube videos.

Frost: How did you get it off the ground?

Ben: Hard work. It was just getting a website and talking to people. The real life that was injected into it was the employment side. That is when Maundy got involved. Everyone we spoke to said it was something they felt strongly about.

Maundy: The website took a while, but when we got the website, and the website functioning, it went quite quickly. We are a last resort. We have a cafe office. We want everyone to feel welcome.

Frost: Will you branch to other areas?

Ben: We are about community, but we don’t mind if you are from another area. We won’t ban you from the website. We want to expand, but in the local area. There are a quarter of a million people in Kingston and Richmond, so it would be great to touch even 10% of that. People in Kingston spend the most amount of time online than in any other borough.

Frost: What about the London Riots?

Ben: The area we cover was not directly affected, but they came pretty close. I was abroad at the time but I remember talking to Maundy about it.

Maundy: We had some alerts. We shut the office. We took all the interns home and locked up. We were contacted by the police and we are going to be working with the police on youth engagement. We were talking about how hard it is for young people, and we don’t just mean graduates. Graduates are easy for us because they can do internships. So we talked to the police and we will be getting some inspirational speakers.

Ben: In terms of the aftermath, when you see the news, what surprised a lot of commentators was the fact that all these people came out with their brooms and started sweeping. There was a strong sense of community and we didn’t find that surprising at all. There is a very strong sense of community, especially in London.

Maundy: You never know where your connections will take you. We work with the Big Issue as well, but we were trying to do something that was too ambitious. We were trying to help people find work. We thought because we do a job cafe, maybe we could do a lunch cafe for the Big Issue vendors. Instead, we are trying to help them identify people who might want to be vendors.

Ben: We are a supporter and a friend.

http://www.communityuponthames.co.uk/